Gossip Girl in Second Life
Much of what we do in virtual worlds, but also in literature, journalism and marketing, involves story-telling. One great story-teller in marketing is CEO Reuben Steiger of Millions of Us. At Virtual Worlds 2008 he said that technology is maybe less interesting than the stories. Stories are inherently social:
Let us not obsess about the tools. It will be frustrating, but it is about inspiration, imagination.
This may be very true, but in these times of collapsing markets and budgets, do companies and institutions still have ambitions to innovate in story-telling? This remains to be seen, but if they are smart, they should continue innovating.
The current crisis is not just a major accident after which everything will go back to normal. Disruptive change takes place, and companies better prepare themselves in order to survive.
Reuben explains this eloquently on Advertising Age:
Again the web is at the crux of this change. There are 3 things I’ll call out here as significant:
1. The web has become social; 75% of U.S. adults have contact with social media, according to October 2008 data from Forrester.
2. Television viewership and periodical use is down, online consumption is up.
3. Users are making and consuming each others’ content.
As so often in discussions about social media, one of the central issues is control:
Assets from media they used to control (print, broadcast, online publishing) are migrating to ones they don’t. Even worse, the new online party is invite only.
Reuben believes brands need a dedicated social media agency. Those agencies offer skill sets of marketers, game designers, film makers and technologists.
Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds and virtual goods seem to be important in this regard. Millions of Us is acquainting traditional media audiences with virtual worlds. Its affiliate, Virtual Greats is responsible for a growing portfolio of copyrighted intellectual property for use in virtual worlds.
The affiliate is a virtual goods sales and distribution system, “connecting celebrities, artists and content creators with a new generation of fans through the online trade of likenesses, fashion, catchphrases, and other virtual representations of real-world talent.”
The content offered by Virtual Greats is made by professionals and licensed. To get an idea, visit Upper East Side for Gossip Girl (Warner Brothers) in Second Life. Also have a look at the site of Gossip Girl where the Second Life location is presented, in a video-story format.
The region does not just recreate the famous New York City neighborhood, but organizes events such as Morning Coffee, Zoo visits, skating, balls, balls, parties, fishing and whodunits. Other platforms are used as well, such as Flickr for photo contests.
Five tricks I discovered looking at Gossip Girl:
- Have a professionally looking environment
- Use various platforms: 2D site, video, photo-sharing platform, virtual setting, other media
- Have not only a static environment but also events, meeting points, fun stuff to do
- It is not enough to have events and an environment. Tell stories.
- Make the audience part of the stories.
Is this model having any success? Is it really interesting for Gossip Girl to invest in this Second Life development? What kind of stories are told in the professionally made environments, are they as fake as the average advertisement, or do brands really engage in conversations while telling captivating stories?
Let’s meet in-world
Find out more on Monday February 15 at Noon SLT (9 pm CET). Join host Robert Bloomfield, as Metanomics queries Reuben Steiger about the emerging principles around social-media campaigns.
The show can be attended at various locations in-world. You can meet me at Metapartners, a Belgian company helping companies and institutions to collaborate and do business in Second Life.
Roland Legrand
